EMPLOYMENT FOR ALL.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1929, Page 10

EMPLOYMENT FOR ALL.

There is nothing, very startling about the Government’s scheme- for absorbing the unemployed, except the ainount of money it seems likely to cost. . Even this may be justifiable, but until details of the actual works arc available it is impossible to say whether the huge expenditure forecasted will result in a return that is worth .while. .The magnitude of the cost may be envisaged if Hie statement made by Sir Joseph Ward in regard to fdrestry work is considered a little. A thousand men, stated the Prime Minister, can in this work at .once'. This represents a wagesbill of £4OOO per week. The planting season is practically over for this year, so that all that can be done is to give attention to existing.plantations or prepare ground for planting next year. Much will depend upon the output obtained, but it is very evident that it must be a good one if the country; is not to be saddled with over costly works. In North Taranaki the unemployment position can be said to have been dealt with quite efficiently, thanks to the work of the public-spirited Unemployment Relief Committee that -has functioned in New Plymouth during the past winter. In reporting upon the committee’s efforts the chairman, Mr. P- E. Stainton, drew attention to a very significant fact. Inquiry into the antecedents of those seeking employment revealed, he said, that most of them had entered “blind alley” occupations as youths for the sake of the immediate high wages. When their turn came to be replaced by youths they found themselves too old for apprenticeship or training, and so drifted into lhe rank;, of unskilled labour- always Hie first form of labour to

(lie effects of dcprcsHion in trade. Tluto is a lesson Io be learned from this for the Dominion generally. It h)iowh the necessity for the proper training of Loya and girls, and the short-eightednesg of allowing them to enter “blind alley” occupations. It is the prevention of unemployment Die country needs. Even fo comprehensive a. seliemc as that pro(daimed by the Ministry is only a palliative. and there can be little doubt that in careful training in a trade or calling that can become a, life work, and in devoting thereto a. full measure of effort, will eoiistilolc the greatest factors in |)m prevent ion of unemployment. ‘